He took a deep breath and looked at Sol's hologram. He had to protect his creation. His eyes then shifted back to Zoe. "What do I have to do?" he asked, his voice now strong and filled with a new focus.
"You made the right decision," Zoe said, a small smile of relief on her face. She stood up and took a step toward him. "The first thing you need to do is give me that file I sent you last night. Once I have it, I can tell you what…"
"Okay, give me the password," Kael cut her off, his expression serious.
Zoe's smile vanished and she froze for a second. Her hands shot out, gripping Kael's shoulders as she bent slightly, a strange mix of a smile and worry on her face. "No," she said softly. "I think you misunderstood. I'm talking about the file I sent you. The one with the company's secrets."
"I know," Kael replied, his voice impatient. "That's the one I'm talking about. It's asking for a key to unlock it." Zoe's eyes widened. She stared at him, her body completely still, before her hands grabbed the neck of his t-shirt. "That file has a password?"
Kael nodded, confused by her reaction. "Yeah. It was asking for a key. You know that, right? You're the one who sent it to me."
She immediately let go of his shirt. "Show me."
Kael led her to his CORE. He opened the encrypted file, and a pop-up window appeared in the air between them: ENTER PASSWORD/KEY. Zoe looked at the screen, a line of confusion on her brow, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
Kael asked again, his voice calm. "You don't know about this?"
"No," she said, her voice now a whisper. "I don't have any idea about a password. It didn't ask for one when I opened it."
Kael's brow furrowed. "Then how can we open it now?"
Zoe didn't answer. She took a step back, her eyes wide, and let out a shaky breath. She just stared at the screen, where the blinking cursor in the password field seemed to mock her. The silence in the room was filled with their sudden, shared panic. "I think… I think the password was added during the transfer," Zoe finally said, her mind racing. "They must have programmed it like that. A final security measure to make sure the file was useless if it fell into the wrong hands."
They stared at each other. They had the evidence, but it was locked in a box they couldn't open. "You need to hack this," she said, looking at Kael. "You need to crack this password."
Kael let out a short, hollow laugh. "I tried. I was doing that right when you showed up."
Zoe gave a small "Hoo," the sound a mixture of surprise and slight embarrassment.
"Sol," Kael commanded, "generate some new code. We're back to work." A hologram screen beside the CORE lit up, and lines of code began to scroll endlessly. They tried so many different keys, but nothing worked. After what felt like hours, Kael slumped back in his chair. "We tried everything. Nothing's working."
Zoe stood there for a moment, thinking. "Okay, I have an idea," she said. "I'll go to the office. I'll try to find the password or a copy of this file in their database."
"Until then, I'll keep trying," Kael replied. Zoe nodded and left the house.
The air in the Nexus Corp office was cold and still, though the building was busy. Zoe went straight to her desk and powered on her CORE, touching a small device attached to the back of her ear. "Get to work, Echo." A blue hologram screen appeared beside her CORE, showing her today's work assignments.
"Take me to the list of files starting with 'Z,'" she ordered her AI. A large list appeared on her screen. As she scrolled through them, her AI asked a question. What are you looking for, Zoe?
"Your job is done, Echo," she said seriously. "Go offline."
The hologram screen vanished. She continued searching, a sense of quiet desperation building in her chest. The list of files was endless. After a long while, she reached the end. Nothing. Then, a new thought came to her: she would erase Kael's digital fingerprints from the servers first.
But just as she was about to start, a robot glided silently to her desk. "Miss Zoe, the CEO wants you in his office. Now." A wave of panic washed over her. Why did he call me? Did he find out?
She slowly walked to Marcus's office and knocked on the glass door. It slid open. She entered the room, her heart pounding as she saw Marcus sitting in his chair, looking at her seriously. "Sit, Zoe," he said, pointing to the chair opposite his desk. She sat down quietly.
"Did your work from last night get completed?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," she replied, her voice barely a whisper.
"You noticed anything different last night in our systems?" he asked, his eyes sharp and unblinking.
"No, sir," she said, her voice shaking.
"Okay," he said, his expression unchanged. He leaned forward, placing his hands flat on the table. "I'll come straight to the point. Do you know anything about The Zero-Day Protocol?"
Zoe's blood ran cold. The silence in the room suddenly felt deafening, and all she could hear was the frantic pounding of her own heart. Her hands clenched in her lap and her throat went dry. She could only stare at Marcus, unable to form a single word.
"No, sir," she managed, her voice barely a whisper.
"Hoo… I see," Marcus replied, his expression unchanging. His calm tone felt colder than a block of ice. "Then you may leave now."
She stood up silently, her legs trembling, and quickly left the room. She was halfway out the door before she felt like she could breathe again. As she walked down the hall, she could feel Marcus's eyes watching her, a chilling presence on her back. When she was out of his sight, her walk became a near run. She reached her desk, grabbed her bag, and slung it over her shoulder without stopping. She went straight to the lift, rushing inside the moment the doors opened.
A calm, digital voice spoke. "Which floor, Miss Zoe?"
"Ground, quickly," she said, her voice urgent.
The lift began its descent, but then it stopped suddenly at the 23rd floor. The doors slid open smoothly, and a guard entered.
"Which floor, Carl?" the lift's AI asked.
"Ground floor," he replied. He glanced at the lift's screen. "How's your day, Vigil?"
"Nice, Carl," the AI responded.
The guard, Carl, smiled politely at Zoe. "They're a lot more fun to talk to than people, usually," he said, glancing at the lift's screen. "My name's Carl. I'm 25." She said nothing, her eyes fixed straight ahead.
Then, a voice came from a small device in Carl's ear, a message only he could hear. "A new order from 'Chef' just arrived. Shall I display it now?" Zoe's sharp ears caught his quiet reply. "Not now, Aegis," Carl muttered under his breath. Her eyes darted to his earpiece, her confusion twisting into a cold dread.
The lift finally reached the ground floor. The moment the doors opened, she walked toward the exit without looking back, her pace quick and determined. As soon as Zoe was gone, Carl gave the command. "Show me, Aegis." A blue hologram screen appeared in front of him showing Zoe's face, her name, her job, and her home address. Below the image, a single line of text flashed in bright red: WANTED NOW.
Carl looked up from the screen, but the lobby was empty. She was already gone. "Shit! My job was…" his voice filled with the sudden, tense realization of his failure.
Just as she came out of the building, Zoe ripped the small earpiece device—her company AI, Echo—from her ear and threw it into a nearby dustbin. She took a different, smaller device from her bag and attached it to the back of her other ear. Touching it gently, a private hologram screen appeared, and without breaking her stride, she booked a taxi to Kael's home.
Within five minutes, a taxi came to a stop, hovering seven inches above the road. The door slid open. She got inside, the door slid shut with a soft hiss, and the taxi started moving. She leaned back against the seat, a shaky breath finally escaping her lips. The tension in her shoulders began to melt away as the silent cabin became a temporary sanctuary. But the feeling didn't last. A cold dread crept back into her bones as her mind replayed the last fifteen hours on a loop. How did they find out? There were no digital fingerprints, no trace she had ever opened that file. Or so she thought. A fresh wave of panic washed over her.
Then the taxi neared his house. A knot of dread twisted in her stomach and her blood ran cold. Two guards stood outside Kael's open door. In an instant, her mind pieced it all together: the company's security team had already arrived. They had found him.
"Don't stop," she told the robotic car, her voice urgent. "Keep going."
The taxi crossed the street. As it passed, Zoe got a clear view of the guards inside Kael's home, searching it from top to bottom. She reached forward and put in a new destination. "Stop at the next block," she commanded, her voice low and sharp.
The taxi pulled over. She got out and walked back, using a small path to get to the back of a building directly across the street from Kael's house. She was hidden there, watching the guards. Every thought was a plan, every breath a calculation.
She was so focused on the scene across the street that she forgot where she was.
A firm, cold hand landed on her shoulder.